Raising Hope
by Lore55
Summary: AU where Vader finds Luke on Tatooine five years after ROTS. Cue gallivanting into space with a commandeered ship, a 5 year old, a familiar stow away and a rather displeased Piett.
1. Chapter 1

**Based off of this tumblr post post/147416525347/spineys-artly-blog-spineys-artly-blog . First chapters are sorta serious, the rest are more humorous.**

* * *

Tatooine.

His whole life he had hated the planet, from his birth to the day he left to his 'home coming' with the damned Huttlet.

And now here he was again. On an errand for his Master.

'Errand' once would have been a heavy word for ending what little remained of Anakin Skywalker's family. The step brother and his wife were small and insignificant, so Vader wasn't entirely sure why it was so important that he end their existence. It wasn't like he had any loyalty to them.

It wasn't up to him, of course. Darth Sidious called the shots and he was the Apprentice now.

Sand was sinking into his boots the second he swung off of the speeder he'd taken to the Lars' farm, ratting and crunching around metal under leather. The sun beat down on him, one of them already set, with a heat the went right through the blackness of his suit.

He barely had the skin left for sweating yet he could feel it growing damp.

A flicker of something curled at the edge of his awareness, bringing him to a full stop. His head lifted, his shoulders rolled, and his eyes caught, through the mask, movement around the corner of the only above ground building.

Behind him the squadron of Storm Troopers, a replacement for the 501st, came whirring in on their own bikes, sending grains of sand sailing through the air in waves.

"Sir?" one of them called from behind him. "What is it?"

That would be easier to tell if they weren't distracting him.

With a dramatic sweep of his cape the Sith Lord marched across the yard, motioning with a single gesture for them to spread out.

"No one escapes," he rasped. The group obediently ran off, diving through the perimeter and into the house beneath the sand.

Vader stood there in the beating light of the sun, horribly familiar on the awful planet. Shouts and the familiar sounds of a struggled reached the Sith Lord before the sight of two adults being forcibly shoved before him on their knees did.

Two adults were expected. The child one man had thrown across his shoulder to transport him was not.

The boy was tossed carelessly into the sand when he thrashed and scrambled to his feet, wild blue eyes swinging from white armor to the black figure that was Vader. There was panic in him, surging through the Force fast and hard, stronger than anything that Vader had ever felt. Stronger than Obi Wan, stronger than Ahsoka.

Stronger than Anakin.

It was wild and familiar. It was impossible.

He knew this Force, he had felt it years earlier with his palms against his wife's swollen stomach and her soft lips pressed against him. He knew this boy.

"Who is this?" he demanded, his voice rising through the muffled helmet.

Owen shook his head. "My boy, our son, he's no one. You don't need to-" he was cut off with a choked cry. Vader's hand was raised, and with it came Owens head, pulled up as the Sith curled the Force around his throat.

"Stop it!" Beru shouted, lunging at him. A trooper kicked her leg back out from under her, sending the woman crashing into the boiling sand.

"Who is he?!" Vader asked again, tightening his hold on Owen.

"Luke," he choked, the word barely audible. There was wetness gathering in his eyes.

"Luke, what," he encouraged, never slacking his grip. Owen lost consciousness before he could answer but Vader didn't need him to. Luke was a name he had chosen, half a decade before. One he had whispered against a Padme's lips, against her stomach, to the children kicking out from within.

"Luke Skywalker," he rasped the name out. The name of the child staring up at him in fear, the name of his son.

His _son_.

The son that was meant to be dead, the son that was supposed to have never lived, the son that his Master assured him was gone before he could hold him in his arms.

The son his _Master_ had lied about.

In one swift movement he had scooped the boy, who started screaming, out of the sand and swung back onto the bike with Luke pinned to his side.

"Lord Vader?" one of the troopers asked, drawing up short at the sight of their leader doing such a thing.

He ignored them entirely and started the engine with just one hand, taking off without a word to them. All the while the boy kicked and squirmed, throwing the Force against the Sith Lord. With a wave of his hand the boy went limp with sleep.

Sidious had lied to him, his child was alive and well and he was-

What was he now?


	2. Chapter 2

**The Hope Lions: Oh shit, dude, if you have a big enough problem with short chapters to mention it based off of the first chapter, we may have problems. Just ask anyone who's read Strawberry, I put out chapters when I feel like they're done. Half the time I don't actually look at the word count? I mean, I'll admit that that first chapter was short, even for me, but most of mine don't exceed 2,000 words each. And no amount of convincing is going to change that, just gonna say so now.**

 **I don't put out chapters that a number tell me is right, I put out chapters that my heart tells me are right.**

 **FireShifter: Thank you! I saw that post and I knew that I had to write it.**

 **Fire Tempest: Lot of hot heads this chapter, damn. You're very welcome.**

 **Anakin had never been one of the most rational creatures in the galaxy but this was pushing it, even for him.**

* * *

"He just… took Luke," Obi Wan repeated. His brows were drawn together, his old eyes were fixed on the shaking couple in front of him. All around them were groaning Storm Troopers, most unconscious, one was just sitting still, nursing a scorched wound on her hand. Obi Wan had tried not to kill them, and had succeeded for the most part. They were just a bit… crispy.

Beru nodded, clutching tightly at her husband's hand. Her eyes were still wet but there was a fire in them that betrayed a mother's fury. Had it been anyone else in the universe he had no doubt that she would have bitten off their hand before she let them lay it on her boy.

"Took him and ran," Owen reiterated with the confidence and absurdness of someone who had gone into shock. "Under his arm. Looked like a foose player."

Obi Wan frowned deeper and stood up, Light Saber in hand, to turn his gaze to the direction of the Star Port. He had arrived minutes too late to stop it, and had taken precious time to take down the Troopers, so alike and so foreign from his own 212ths, then wasted yet more in his own bewilderment over the new Sith Lords actions. Now, he had vanished across the horizon.

Without conscious thought his feet were already gliding over the sand, driven faster by the Force and his own fears, until he had thrown himself violently onto the cockpit of his land speeder. It was second hand but reliable, something he was depending on when he threw it forwards into the desert, bound for Vader and the boy he had taken with him.

Force only knew what he planned to do with him.

* * *

His Comm unit would not stop beeping. Every now and again he would get an overridden snippet of 'Sir, what are you-', or, 'Vader what have you-' before he cut them off with violence and determination. Fury was broiling through him, tearing through his veins until he could hardly see.

Palpatine, who he had trusted over his own Master, had lied, deceived and tricked him and he had followed him with blind faith. Desperation and fear.

"Fear leads to the dark side," he rumbled through his mask. Fear of the future, of not being able to save Padme. Fear of Padme's death and then the anger over it.

 _Padme_.

Force, what had he done?

He had wrapped his hand around her throat, tossed her to the ground and accused her of treason. Padme, his love, his wife, the mother of his children-

Children. Plural. He had Luke but there had to be another, there had to be Leia, somewhere, out in space.

Shit on a chokie, he was a _father_.

A father with blasters pointed at him as he neared the Port to leave the planet. Word of his disembarkation had spread fast, it seemed, for the Troopers he had left behind with his landing party from the Executor.

The Port on Tatooine had grown even larger his exit as a youngling, and again expanded when refugees tried to find place on the desert planet with the rise of Empire. It was now swollen and choked with exhaust and metal, overflowing with people. Storm Troopers formed a breathing wall of white with dots of black in between to show the points of the weapons now levelled at him.

Star Ships shot above them, giving up on the port and going somewhere else. Empire standoffs were notoriously dangerous for bystanders. Anakin, Vader, whoever he kriffing was anymore, reached behind him to grab Luke up under one arm while the other left the wheel to snatch his Light Sabre off of his belt. With a pull on the wheel and the push of the Force he had launched himself up, out of cockpit and into the air.

With a soft hum the red exploded into its blade, spinning in rapid circles to block blaster bolts that were sent in his direction. Had he not sent his speeder careening into the largest group of Troopers he might have had a more difficult time avoiding shots.

Even still, his well trained troops managed to get a shot off against his leg, sending sparks up along what little length of his thigh still possessed nerve endings. It barely deserved the hiss that it received from the creature that had been Skywalker. In vengeance the next blaster bolt he deflected returned the favor.

He landed in a roll that shielded Luke(his son, Father, Sister and _Brother_ ) from any harm. He was lucky. The shot to his leg hadn't damaged it enough that it would stop working. Just enough that it was stiff and slow, keeping him from rushing into the nearest, fastest ship.

There were too many Troopers around, too many coming from the scream of TIE's over head. He needed out, fast as he could, faster than what he could blast it all.

The Force whirled around him, slamming the Storm Troopers away with every throw of his hand. With only one limb left it was all he could to keep from getting shot down. He was in constant motion, spinning and swiping, leaning on the Force for his survival. And for the survival of the child he kept clutched to his son, who was, naturally, rousing from all the noise.

It figured he didn't have the time to put the child back to sleep without that sleep ending up as perminant.

He was mid curl when a started cry came from his hip, followed by a squirming against his stomach. The cry quickly rose to a scream.

The man couldn't fight the Troopers and Luke at the same time so he hoisted him up, up to his chest in a grip tight enough to keep him from squirming.

Red light danced around them as he struggled to fight his way to a ship with a hyperdrive, his mind running a mile a minute as he took the familiar motions of battle. The screaming in his ear was replaced by soft gasps.

There was a lull in which he had the time to pitch himself forwards, and even a spare second to see what the little boy was doing.

To his surprise, he was smiling. His eyes were wide with wonder, staring around the ships in the sky and the dancing lights exploding around them. He had stopped squirming and was now gripping tight at the black cape around his fathers shoulders, using it to hold him up where he could see.

There was a brief flash where the blue eyes were set under white brows and framed in the orange of his long lost Padawan. The wonder in them was childlike and familiar.

Skywalker, he decided would fit for now, looked back in front of him. He cut down a white armored body that was in the way and angled his body so the child couldn't see the corpse he hobbled over. Another blast glanced his elbow, shooting out the mechanism that let him hold it up.

Luke shouted and scrambled for purchase when the limb around his gave way, clinging desperately to his father's shoulder lest he plummet to the ground. Skywalker was thankful for the help, using a small push of the Force to stabilize him.

His boots hit a ramp and his fist struck the lock. He didn't have time to looked back or stop any damage being done to the ship, he was too busy scrambling to get to the pilot's seat.

Somehow he got the shields up and the ship off the world before he struck the hyperdrive, his attention so focused on the incoming TIE he forgot to put in coordinates.

They vanished seconds before the shots fired could make contact.

 _Safe_.

Skywalker stared at the blurring stars in front of him, barely able to breath even with the assistance of his mask. Sometime during the takeoff sequence the weight on his lap had disappeared, only to reappear in his peripherals.

Luke was standing on tip toes, trying to see all the buttons and switches on the control panel. His tiny hands reached out to slap one down before the elder lunged forwards to catch it.

There was a startled, fear filled squeak from the child.

That, was not his intention.

"Don't touch that," he scolded, his mask foiling any lightness in his voice. Kriffing Palpatine and his damned melodramatics. Between him and Obi Wan it was a miracle the young apprentice didn't run around singing opera while he slaughtered.

Trying to remember what it was like to be that young, that innocent, he guided the hand to a new button.

"Hit that one," he advised as a substitute, and got to watch the child obey wearily. The blue button dropped under the pudgy digits and up popped a holo map of the galaxy they were in. A thin red line growing through it marked their path.

Skywalker tried not to be too smug about the delighted gasp from the little boy, who started manipulating the map with his hands. Mostly accidental, the Sith was sure, but the growing grin on his face said that he would be occupied for a while.

He felt safe enough to lean back in the pilot's chair and look away for a minute, just _one minute_. One minute too long. The only warning he had was the door sliding open behind him, the only reaction he had time for was to flash his light sabre on and in the way of one bright blue blade made to decapitate him.

A second blade extended to press against his throat.

From the open doorway a throat that did not belong to man who now held him hostage was cleared.

Firmus Piett looked out over him, Luke, and Obi Wan before saying, quite simply,

"Well. This is awkward."


	3. Chapter 3

**Reviews;**

 **Nequam95: Thank you! It's not really my idea, I was just super inspired.**

 **The Hope Lions: Nah you're fine, I just came close to fighting someone when they wouldn't let word count go in another story I have. I get where you're coming from. For me I don't pay much attention to word count, but if there only like, a paragraph per chapter I won't stick around.**

 **Fleefly: We'll see!**

 **TidePoolAngel: Thank**

 **rookeyy14: Because he went AWOL. More details to follow.**

* * *

Obi Wan had doubts that there had ever been a more confused five year old than the one currently squinting at three men from across a cup of fruit juice they'd found in the fridge.

Surely he had seen traumatized children, and snarky ones, and little blue-lekku'd girls with too much sass for their miniscule height, but this was none of those things. This was suspicion and absolutely befuddlement. Odd on the face of a child.

Children, Obi Wan had learned a lifetime ago, had a tendency to learn quickly. To form hypotheses and assume those to be truth without any boundaries or basis. The only exception to this had been Anakin, who had soaked up information with keen eyes and open ears. A boy who knew more than anyone else and less all at once, and who learned with such vigor it was near frightening.

He had never learned patience, though, nor restraint.

With any luck, those were lessons that would take better with the next generation.

"So you're supposed to be my dad," Luke pointed to Vader, "And you're the weird hermit that grows useless plants," his finger moved on to Obi Wan. Ben, to Luke and his family. "And you're some guy that works for my dad?" on to the uniformed individual at the end of the line. He wore no armor, he was neither Storm Trooper nore Clone. Which meant he had to be Imperial Navy, an officer by the hat.

"That about sums it up, yes," Obi Wan confirmed. He had three lightsabers in front of him. One was his, one was Anakin's, and one was Vaders. He had confiscated it after their little bout in the pilot's seat, untrusting of the Sith Lord. For good reason too.

"I thought my dad was dead. That's what Uncle told me," the boy reported dutifully.

Obi Wan exchanged a look with Vader. There was an uneasy truce to them now, one that allowed for such things. The question did remain.

What the hell was going on here?

It had become apparent from the second that the Troopers had started shooting at the oncoming Sith that he was no longer a commander of theirs. Which meant that the kidnapping of the boy was beyond bizarre.

Now that he had had time to think rather than simply react Obi Wan could only conclude that Vader had completely, totally, lost his mind.

So with his clear instability they were supposed to come up with a way to explain to a small child the complex ways that the mind broke and splintered, that a person with the same DNA might not be the person they once were.

How did you explain evolution to a five year old?

"Your uncle didn't know."

Apparently, they weren't going to tell him period. Obi Wan frowned beneath his beard and sat back, displeased. He may have been raised without a family, but his apprentice had had his mother and they all knew how well that had turned out.

On the other hand, the circumstances were vastly different.

Luke was already showing himself to be bright and difficult to frighten. Well, he didn't stay frightened for long at least. Perhaps because children had little sense of mortality, Obi Wan wasn't sure about it just yet.

Obi Wan hoped that Leia was more like her mother, or Breha was in for trouble.

After a moment pause Obi Wan took that back. Padme had been just as much trouble. Sometimes more.

Usually more.

"Why didn't you come before?" Luke pressed, proving himself just as curious as anyone his age. Even Jedi younglings had asked after their origins before, it was no surprise that this boy had so many questions.

"The Empire kept me back," Vader rumbled through his mask.

"Why?" the boy asked.

Vader faltered, a difficult thing to see with the mask in the way. If Obi Wan hadn't practically raised the creature he wouldn't have noticed.

"They needed him," Obi Wan said, surprising even himself by his helping, "He was their best enforcer," a fact that was now, apparently, no longer true. Unless the entire thing was ruse, but that wouldn't make any sense at all.

"I am here now."

Obi Wan could have sworn there was some Anakin in his robotic voice, if only for an instant.

* * *

Sidious was glowering. Scowling. Whatever you wanted to call that look it usually meant murder for anyone unfortunate enough to be around to see it.

Lucky for the rest of the galaxy, there was no one left to see it in the Emperor's palace. He was alone to glare viciously at the holopad that read data he didn't need to see to know.

Vader, his prized student, the only one to never offer him any disappointment, was gone. He was stronger than Maul, stronger that Tyrannus. He was the best apprentice that Sidious had ever had and now, after an attempt to sever and ties of love he might still have, he had lost him.

It had started with a call. One that started with a lowly Stormtrooper and ignited a burning train of horror that shot right through the ranks until the knowledge was being reported with a great deal of hesitance to the supreme commander of the entire Empire.

He could still hear the unsteady shake in the officer's voice when the comms came on.

" _Emperor Palpatine, sir. It appears that Lord Vader has, ah, abducted a child. And run. He isn't answering any calls."_

Not even calls from his master were answered.

There was only one choice that Sidious was left with.

He ordered the troopers to open fire on Vader. A veritable army of the best soldiers ever trained, hand picked from all the planets under his power. They were the best of the best, end of story.

They should have been enough to defeat Vader.

If a secondary force hadn't appeared and prevented them all from converging together on the Sith Lord. A Jedi, not yet dead, somehow escaped from the purges and was now on the run with a wayward Sith, a child, and a kidnapped officer that had been in the stollen shuttle.

This was a mess.

A disaster.

A catastrophe.

Sidious tapped his comms back on and put in to his top generals.

"This is Emperor Palpatine to all points," he announced regally, "bring Vader to me at all costs."

The hunt was on.

* * *

Firmus watched the exchange between Jedi and Sith with increasing unease.

Every now and again his hand would twitch for a side arm that was no longer there. He didn't know where the old Jedi had put his blaster, only that he no longer had access to his only form of defense while a hostile force had taken control of his ship.

Which was more hostile, the crippled cyborg or the armed Jedi, he honestly couldn't say.

The Commander had witnessed before the wrath of Vader in face of set backs. They were few and far between but since he had joined in with Death Squadron Firmus had witnessed more than one person torn apart by the man before him. He had even stumbled upon an unfortunate mechanic that had tweaked the wrong nerve during a repair and been sent flying through a wall for her troubles.

Jedi, on the other hand, were traitors and exterminated on sight for a reason. Firmus had never seen one this close before. In fact, he had only ever caught a few looks at them back during the Clone Wars. It felt like ages, even if had only been five years.

They were dangerous. Both of them. And with the lack of favor paid to him from either of the two he was in worse shape than the child. His safety was anything but guaranteed.

Slowly, he started sinking into his chair. There was always his old survival skills to fall back on.

Be competent and don't anger supernatural creatures that could slice him in half.

Yes, that was a good plan. In fact it was so good that he felt comfortable slipping away to try and figure out where they were headed. It took him twelve steps to realize he hadn't gone as unnoticed as he thought he had.

A small hand on his pants alerted him, drawing his eyes down see the little boy holding onto him and staring up with the widest eyes of the brightest blue he had ever seen in his life.

"Are you gonna go to controls?" he asked, something breathless in his voice. Firmus wondered if he had ever been in a spacecraft before or if he just loved them.

The officer nodded slowly, painfully aware of the holes being bored into his skull from behind red lenses. One wrong move…

"I am," he confirmed, which was evidently an invotation for the little boy to grin and run ahead of him.

With a heavy heart he trudged after them, praying to a deity he had forgotten the name of years passed that this would be a short trip.

One look at the coordinates displayed on the hyperdrive and he knew that praying was useless.

They were stuck for another three weeks.

Perfect.


End file.
